Happy Birthday!I

Literally eating rocks with the cutest Korean girl ever!

Happy 20th Birthday Laken!!

These are rocks that they eat....they taste just like you would imagine!

I GET teased as being the area mom...so they decorated the computer room for my bday and got me a yoga mat! 

Surprise party for Laken!

Lunch with the youth. And the most white people ever seen in a restaurant! Zone P-day!

The Olympic Torch coming through!

Hello everybody!

Sorry, last week was just kindof insane and I ran out of time to send a big email, but today is the redemption round!

This week started off with our zone pday! So much fun, but i think I enjoy them more when I dont have to help plan them. Haha. However, it went great. Somehow we managed to 22 missionaries all over town without losing anyone or missing any buses. (a miracle in itself!) We went to one of the biggest Buddhist temples in South Korea, its huuuge.  We were super worried about how it would turn out, but everything went smooth and i think we broke the record for the most korean speaking white people on one bus! 

Tuesday we had exchanges with our 호계 (hogye) sisters. I went there and was able to spend the day with Sister Stott, it was like throwing it back to the MTC. 24 hours wasn't enough to catch up on everything thats happened over the last 10 months. (We've never gotten to serve close together!) Plus our birthdays are on the same day so we took each other out to a fancy dinner. No better way to celebrate our birth week than together.♡ The heavens were celebrating too because it snowed!!! The Zone of the mission we are in is known for never ever getting snow, so it was a magical day!

Wednesday we unexchanged, and then exchanged with our 신정 sisters. I got to go there and spend the day with Sister 황수경. That was the only way we could get schedules figured out and its safe to say I was dead after. I got a solid 6 hours of sleep between the two nights combined...but have no regrets, it was so great! They're both such adorable missionaries that I love so so much.

Friday, hehe.  Like the weirdest but also best day ever. We had interviews in the morning with President and got to see our district. I stinking love these people. We were waiting for President to be ready in one of the rooms, then all the lights turned off and they were singing happy birthday with a cake. They're literally too much. Nothing is better than starting a day with interviews and cake with the District and President!

Then the day went a little weird. We were visiting a less active lady in the ward whose from Russia, Gulmira. We visit her every week and have gotten really close, i guess as close as you can with such a huge language barrier. So we're all talking studying Korean, and she pulls out this bag of rocks...for us to eat! We literally all sat on the floor in her living room and ate rocks. Her father in law sent them and apparently theyre special (except they didn't look special, they looked like she picked them up outside!) and full of calcium. Surprisingly, they aren't as hard as you would think, except they tasted pretty nasty..well how you wpuld except a rock to taste if you decided to eat it. BUT my advice would be to stick to not eating rocks! 

Then that night jumped to the biggest miracle and most prepared person I've ever taught on my mission. We met this sweet lady named, 이시은, sticker boarding a couple weeks ago, we met with her last week, then again Friday night. We taught her English, and then she ended the English study early because she said she had all these burning questions about the Restoration pamphlet we had given her. As we taught her the Restoration, the spirit was so strong and she was so excited and in love with everything we said. When we taught her about the first vision she couldn't stop smiling and kept saying how amazing it was and how she couldn't get rid of her goose bumps. Then I dont think it couldve gotten better after she asked if she could please buy a Book of Mormon no matter the price. We were all in tears. I cant even put the power of that lesson in words.

And Saturday was my birthday!! Literally I got so spoiled, it was the best day. Sister Oh made me my favorite Korean food for breakfast (And if you knew Oh you would know how insane that was, this cute girl is a 100% microwave and ramen person! Hahaha) and decorated the house in cut out ducks...she kills me, it was awesome! Later we met up with the young women and they took us out to lunch. They both got me cute little presents and wrote me cute love notes. They came back to the church with us to help us prepare for English class. As English class ended, everyone started singing and in came out MCM leader with a cake. Seriously I have so much love for these people♡ He came with us to visit some less active member and then took us out to a super fancy meat buffet. Then we spent the rest of the night talking to missionaries that called to sing happy birthday and eating ice cream. I got soo spoiled, i couldn't be more blessed than to be able to serve with all of these amazing people. 

In Sunday school this week a quote from conference was shared and i wanted to share it with all of you. 

"Being happy doesnt mean to slap a plastic smile on your face no matter what is going on. But it does mean keeping the laws of His and building and lifting others."

With all the different types of people I've been able to meet, one thing I've learned the most is the truth of this quote. There truly is no way to find true happiness without the gospel. People who don't have it, or choose not to embrace it, truly never can find that eternal peace and comfort amongst life and trials. And on the other side, watching people let Christ touch their life and let Him change them. He has the power to change and bring is eternal happiness richer than we can imagine.

So hey, if there's someone you know whose needing that extra unconditional love and direction, well, you know what theyre in need of. Dont over think it, just share it with them♡

Love the gospel. Live the gospel. Share the gospel.

I love you all! Thanks for all the birthday wishes♡